Classic 1967 VW Beetle Factory Full Restoration - Volkswagen

Kathleen Brooks bought her first Beetle in December 1966 in Riverside, Calif.-a red 1967 model she quickly named “Annie.” Ever since, Annie has been Kathleen’s daily transportation, racking up more than 350,000 miles over 51 years, or enough to circle the globe 14 times, and Kathleen, now 73, still drives Annie to work.
After hearing about Kathleen and Annie’s special relationship last year, Volkswagen’s North American Region undertook a unusual project-offering to restore Annie at the North American home of the Beetle at the Puebla, Mexico, factory. Over the past 11 months, a team of some 60 Volkswagen employees and trainees reworked Annie back to factory-quality specs, with several custom touches that celebrate Kathleen’s dedication. This week, Kathleen and Annie were reunited, and Kathleen met key members of the Volkswagen team that led the restoration.
“We often hear stories of dedicated Volkswagen owners, but there was something special about Kathleen and Annie that we felt we needed to honor,” said Derrick Hatami, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Volkswagen of America, Inc. “The original Beetle launched our business in the United States. This isn’t just a Beetle, it’s a member of her family, and after all the time our employees have spent with this special vehicle, we feel Annie is a part of our family as well.”
Brooks works with breast-cancer patients and survivors to provide comfort and cosmetic care during treatment and recovery. A three-time breast cancer survivor herself, Brooks says for over five decades Annie was a constant conversation starter with Beetle fans and owners, but also “always there for me.” “I’ve said many times she and I are so much alike because she’s old, she’s faded, she’s dinged, she’s dented, she’s rusted, but you know what? She keeps running,” says Brooks with a laugh. “And as long as I take as good care of her as I can, she’s going to continue to run.”
Even with Brooks’ best efforts, Annie had several needs when her restoration began in Puebla early this year, from a floor pan rusted through to the ground in spots to suspension, transmission and electrical challenges. Over 11 months, the Puebla team replaced roughly 40 percent of Annie’s parts and restored 357 original pieces, down to recreating the stickers that Brooks had added to the body and windows over the years. To properly restore her faded red paint, the team matched the original shade from the inside of the glovebox, sandblasted the body, repaired with a mix of period-correct and updated parts, and then reassembled.
Several parts of the vehicle were restored with better than their original factory parts, from the disc brakes that were an upgrade on later Beetles produced in Mexico to the AM/FM/Bluetooth stereo designed to mimic the look and feel of original Beetle radios. The wiring was completely redone; the transmission rebuilt and suspension upgraded. The engine was completely disassembled, cleaned, updated and rebuilt. Even the seats received a special touch, with “Kathleen” and “Annie” embroidered in a classic VW font over new leather. And to tie the car to the modern era, the car’s toolkit and jack was painted in deep sea teal metallic, the color of the 2018 Beetle Coast edition.
The goal, says project manager and mechatronics engineer Augusto Zamudio, was not to create a museum quality Beetle, but to bring Annie back to a state where Kathleen could drive and enjoy her for many more years to come.
“When Annie arrived, our team members quickly understood the connection Kathleen had with her car and embraced this project wholeheartedly,” said Steffen Reiche, CEO of Volkswagen of Mexico. “Restoring this car posed a number of challenges, but also provided a demonstration of the dedication we put into every Volkswagen we build.”
When Brooks parted with Annie, she wrote a heartfelt note to the Puebla team members thanking them for their efforts and asking them to take care of her special car. Zamudio says the feeling is mutual - and the team wrote Brooks back a note of their own.
“This was a labor of love for all of us. It was emotional to see Annie go after all the time we have spent working on her, but we are happy Kathleen and her can be reunited.”
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[@dionisio9697]

I’m a car guy, this story brings tears to my eyes. Just the bond between car and driver. You know some of those cars go further for some. They want to be owned and loved too. Their not just machines, they feel warmth and love too.

[@ebt12]

An incredibly beautiful story, and it is wonderful VW North America did this. I love when people take something old and beat up and restore it, a car, a radio, a toy train, whatever, instead of tossing it onto the trash heap. Kathleen's Beetle will last a long time.

[@Bird76Mojo76]

When you wife says "why don't you get rid of that old piece of junk" or "you're insane for loving that car/truck/motorcycle" or "I think you love that thing more than me" - show her this video. Even some women recognize that some old things are worth keeping. Some old things are worth taking care of and cherishing. Some old things will take care of you if you take care of them. Not everything should be thrown away just because the rest of the world does it. You don't need the nicest, newest SUV when a 50 year old Beetle can give you just as much happiness. Great video and she seemed very deserving of the restoration. Bravo VW!

[@Elevator2TheTop]

1967 - one of the VW Beetle all-time bests. I loved mine. Woke up one day to some unfortunate news -- overnight, a large tree had landed in the middle of it. I said my bye-byes, but that beauty has never left my heart. How beautiful to watch this video.

[@rajurave]

still have my full restored 1960 indigo blue beetle with a gray interior and black ragtop with the white walls. owned it since '88 still my favorite vehicle ! go vw go !

[@okwhatever2995]

Literally the best beetle restorations video I’ve ever watched!

[@soilmanted]

It is not clear what they did. They cleaned rust off from everywhere. But the floor pan had spots where it was rusted through. How did they repair those areas? Did they weld in new sections? How many sections and how big. Does the car have a new engine, or did they rebuild the original engine? The car had a new air cleaner, a new oil pump, a new distributor, probably a pointless electronic distributor. It looks like the original generator was replaced by a alternator. But the new engine appears to have the single port cylinder heads that the car came with, and a carburetor, rather than the newer dual port heads and fuel injection, as the newer Beetles head. Did they reupholster the original seats or put in new seats? I would have upgraded to seats with head rests. The newer seats with head rests fit in the original 1967 seat tracks. Or headrests could have been added to the orig seats. This is an inexpensive improvement that greatly improves safety. And would they replace the original AM radio with an AM radio? It also looks like they put bias ply tires on the car. Is that what they did? Radial tires are a huge improvement. Crazy to buy new tires that area bias ply.

[@jose76pe]

@@soilmanted they installed the wrong fenders with flat headlights used on '65 models.

[@monteiro5306]

Fantastic, amazing story. 👍👍

[@stephenport4768]

Love the Beetle a car that endears to me and just smiles at you can't beat it

[@Kieran46100]

wow, lovely story, i wish you both another 50 years of happy driving.

[@pierrepinson2906]

😊I am very HAPPY for this lady 10:34.🚘 Her car is like her baby. 12:36. She deserves this. 💔02:50 She broke my heart when she said goodbye to her beautiful car and🤗 HAPPY when she saw her again on the beach🏖🏖🚘. And i feel pain because she said she would like to live more 50 years again 14:20. ( She has got a cancer). I hope this woman is ok. I pray for her 🙏🙏🙏😘.

[@skiz8848]

love the old fenders and that roof rack is sweet too

[@darigamer4631]

I'm 14 and own a 67 beetle

[@jaywhittemore5878]

Great story. Good job VW !!!

[@sobelou]

Love that they added a right hand side rear view mirror....

[@Gnofg]

I had a '68. It was my first car and I had it until '77. It was a wonderful car and took me all over the U.S. It was very reliable. It is pretty amazing she had it for 51 years and was in pretty good shape. '68 was the first year that they had higher seats up front.

[@erosroyarocho7273]

Great job VW, truly back up your claim of being the people’s car, in this case the people’s Company. Thank you!

[@alfreddeneumann]

Love to see bug restorations. Great work! I'm not OCD but couldn't they straighten the front bumper's alignment? It's making me crazy!

[@gabrielcoronado6395]

Hecho en Puebla. ¡Bien, Inge Zamudio!

[@analistveekonomist1082]

Perfect perfect perfect high quality very beautiful

[@neddalewinkler2874]

OUTSTANDING!!

[@moisesramos7557]

Parabéns VW pela iniciativa.

[@martinmalloy8119]

fantastic job for a fantastic woman ganz tolle Arbeit.....

[@jcirvine38]

Great video! Love the car, color, white walls, and roof rack! The whole package!

[@MarckoUlises]

Germany Car in América, restored in México-Puebla

[@MrLuigge]

es como el jugo del chavo del 8

[@Futbol-vl9qd]

Thats true, i have a beetle too!! It has been with my family since my dad was young and it was a gift from my grandad to my mother. It was the first car my family owned. I always remeber how strong is this car, i gotta point out that we used to travel 6 hours minimun with all our package inside and no problem at all. To all the American people u should at least try a beetle once in life

[@spencermccarthy5157]

If only Annie could have a mind of Her own just like Herbie The Love Bug.

[@user-gg7uz9sf7u]

很喜欢，希望以后能拥有她的Annie，我会好好收藏的😀

[@loveitorscrapit6673]

Like the car. Thumbs up.

[@samuelapiazza47]

COOL LADY, COOL BUG.

[@CardNGoldUSC]

Nice to see others giving to those who help others and glad to see that the parking lot that they built in a cash grab which ruined one of the best surf breaks in the area is actually getting use lol.

[@utenkbeing2845]

Each true owner has their own stories...

[@capybaravangogh7427]

I notice the bumper little bit tilted lol

[@MrFredo007]

Christmas&birthday together!

[@toddvanwinkle7777]

I'll take the original front fenders and the dual snout air cleaner, and the rest of the one year only parts they neglected to put back on the car....

[@jean-pierrelussier842]

Hi how much she spend ?

[@4321grp]

Todd Van Winkle, I had a red 67 Beetle, it served me well, I noticed that for some reason they failed to put the 67 Beetle headlights back on Annie, But overall they did a really good restoration on her.

[@toddvanwinkle7777]

@@4321grp Yes, I talked to the wonderful lady who owns it, she’s happy with it, that’s all that matters..but damn they sure screwed up the originality of that 67’. I liked it better before she had it restored. Who in the Hell paints cylinder heads??

[@4321grp]

@@toddvanwinkle7777 Too bad they didn't keep it original. Mine was just like that one, I drove it for several years, Only trouble I had with it was clutch cable breaking and also I had to rebuild the master cylinder once.

[@davidkastin4240]

Wonderful 😅😂

[@chgotom]

I'm a Beetle enthusiast, great work in general but I see some sloppy moments as well, sorry... 9:39 and 11:55 The whole front bumper is hanging on the driver's side for at least 2 inches lower. Sorry, guys...

[@wolfetrax]

Meanwhile my VW has a new problem each month.

[@jose76pe]

why did they put 65's fenders on a 67 model?

[@D136O]

Eso,eso fue hermoso :3

[@timmyasikin9378]

The vw beetle become new again.....

[@utenkbeing2845]

Complete body off resto, who dosnt want too...

[@craigjorgensen4637]

Why did they have to make unnecessary mods such as old style headlights, wrong air cleaner, totally incorrect wide whites etc. She’s happy and that’s what matters! Pretty cool!

[@GT.Bugger]

It's a shame they skipped all the real work and jumped straight to the final fitting. I don't see why they replaced the engine either! And I'd have thought they'd had known that the axel boots are supposed to have the split positioned at 3 or 9 o'clock. Other than that and replacing all the good quality parts with new repro crap it looks good.

[@davidconley3610]

Why did you put the wrong headlights in the car?

[@tentaculodowar1283]

se fosse no lata velha, a senhora mandava um fuque 67 e voltava um 83 ! kkk

[@MrLuigge]

acho que eles só repintariam a lataria com uma cor nova e só rsrsrs

[@trurling]

How much to restore?

[@alessandrov3042]

Quem veio pela reportagem do Uol?

[@johnerodz7]

Tengo un 67 bug que necesita cariño ayudenme

[@brazilianspeakingenglish132]

Men, may I translate It to portuguese?

[@ae48cq]

Her Volkswagen steering wheel suppose to be black instead of while color.

[@israeljaramillo667]

Superchido

[@nzdesignersclub4599]

Hi am texting from New Zealand. I have my convertible my dream car vW not long after I bought I fell sick and been sick for 4 years without job living in sickness benifits. Now my car lack of attention and been sitting in the garage it needs everything done except body. and engine. And the top is also quite new. I have been looking for someone who can do up my car again also since it’s been off the road for a long time I new have to re register my car. Kindly send me your details so I can get in touch and send this car to you . It’s my dream car that I can’t lose. It’s 1999 golf convertible green.

[@Pheonix2022]

Really not gonna straighten the front bumper? All that work and you left it crooked?

[@Haqpyfeet]

mexican engineering

[@Arctic_Falcon]

Probably done to give it a bit of character.

[@Pheonix2022]

@@Arctic_Falcon That's like remodeling a home and leaving the porch unlevel for "character".

[@Pheonix2022]

@@1videofiend Lol So what you're suggesting is that they filmed some shots with it crooked then had mechanics come out and straighten the bumper in a beach parking lot instead of back at the shop before they delivered it for...what purpose exactly?

[@mariamc117]

She never said "Thanks"

[@isaach7168]

Ok 👍

[@jamesbradford8574]

How many times has she farted into that seat?

[@JoeXlR]

I had give my office chair a break all i can say.

[@whatsstefon]

Asking for a friend.

[@QuietStormX]

But having to go to Mexico to do this? ;-(

[@plef5566]

QuietStormX I know right? I don’t use a smart phone because I only use American made technology. But I’ll be the one laughing at everyone else from my phone booth.

[@TurdDoodlesworth]

American cars suck.

[@QuietStormX]

@@TurdDoodlesworth Where You from? You get more for less here in the U.S. with The Chevy Camaro & Corvette..

[@ChrisFalk2]

Having 60 people working on a car for two months in the US would cost more than most of us can earn during a lifetime. In Mexico it is $250. ;-)

[@QuietStormX]

@Danielle Dani A Factory in the U.S.!